Most people wouldn’t consider the task of raising tens of thousands of dollars a child’s job, but 14-year-old Emily Blake hasn’t been hindered by the adult mentality of the impossible.

While attending a summer camp in 2007, Emily, then 12, heard the disturbing statistic that more than 25,000 children living in poverty die each day from such preventable causes as poor hygiene and lack of food. The preteen looked around at her world and knew it didn’t have to be this way, so she decided to do something about it.